


Max Tries to Save the World

by heregoes



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fix-It, Slow To Update, Third Ending, Trans Character, author is very gay and forgets the pacing they intended, chloe price is most gay and is the only thing keeping these girls from living in denial, it only says mature right now because... its life is strange. its bounds-to get fucked up, this might turn into a poly thing bc damn it if the gay doesnt get out of control, victoria chase is also very gay and forgoes the pacing she intended
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-03-11 05:46:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13517817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heregoes/pseuds/heregoes
Summary: Max Caulfield was offered two shit-ass doors. Through one, the deaths of everyone in Arcadia Bay save herself and Chloe Price. Through the other, Chloe's death at the hand of some two-bit wackjob.Luckily, Max is reasonable.So she jumped out of a window.





	1. Prologue: I love you, I love you, I love you.

“It's okay, Max… I trust you. I trust you to make the right decision.”

The words weren't as calm as they were meant, between Chloe's uncontrollable hiccups and the hurricane next to them, bent on destroying their home, their families, their friends, making Chloe raise her voice higher than she could.

For once, Max was eerily stoic, only the silent tears down her cheeks and the pinch in her brow could give her away. She stared at the hurricane, hands numb from the cold and the pressure she was pushing into the picture.

She looked down at the butterfly, covered in water and nearly too damaged to use. She brought the picture to her chest, to try to shield it as she turned to Chloe.

Chloe managed to almost look hopeful, only to immediately grimace with her guilt. “Max?”

Max bit her lip hard enough to draw blood before rushing forward to kiss Chloe, finally breaking into a sob. “I love you, Chloe. I love you, I love you.”

Chloe wrapped her arms around Max tightly, letting out a shuddering breath. “I love you, too, Max…”

Max pulled back, her face distraught and determined to Chloe's grief-stricken confusion. “I’ll save you, Chloe Price. No matter what. I’m NOT sacrificing anyone.”

Before Chloe could think of a reply, Max pushed her away, pulling the photo out to concentrate her powers on it. She felt her surroundings blur, the ache in her head incrementally increasing and increasing until she felt like it might explode.

And then it was gone.

 


	2. Chapter One: From A Second Story Window

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay strap in because this first chapter relies REAL HEAVILY on dialogue and inference and
> 
> its all fucking exposition to catch yall up enough that theres not just a ton of max going 'huh what? when? what? whats going on... what?'
> 
> like therell be enough of that without her questioning every single tiny thing
> 
> and if you think everyones accepting things a little too quickly... thats either bad writing or ill actually remember to mark in where i need the gals to break down at each other haha
> 
> oh nathan is just straight up bad writing though.
> 
> also i forgot to mention that i totally forgot victoria's rejection letter in her room WASN'T from her parents. so i tried to fix that and it came out kind of weird. i might change it back honestly. this is what happens when i care too much about sticking to the Lore

Max struggled to catch her breath, leaning against the stall wall, gathering her bearings. She felt the blood on her face, and pushed herself off the wall, staggering out in front of the sinks.

One last go around. That was all she had.

She was all she had.

She whipped out her phone and began typing. She had a minute and a half, give or take, to give herself all the details she'd need to save everyone without using her powers.

 _Max. It's me, Ftr Mx. I kno u kno u have pwrs. DONT USE THEM. ull make a hurricane and a bunch of other sht that destroys the bay. DONT USE YOUR POWERS. mj is a killer. he killed rachel. he killed CHLOE. he tried to kill us. make friends with chloe and keep her from killing hrslf. shes an idiot, sometimes, so u REALLY NEED TO WATCH OUT. make friends w vc she can help you get to np. hes sick in the head but mj is USING HIM. he still needs to go dwn but hopefully they can help him. he drugged km. TALK TO KM. make sure shes okay. she needs help. the easiest way 2 take down mj is to report the darkroom. ill save directions to it in ur maps. BE CAREFUL. dont rely on bay police. i think psr is involved._  
_in general. listen to people. be a GOOD PERSON. you can do it without your powers. dont develop a deadly habit like i did. it got the love of our life killed._

She chewed her lip raw, and sent herself the text, pocketing her phone and praying she didn't forget anything. Praying that she wouldn't be dumb enough to ignore her own message.

The door opened and Nathan burst in, scanning the stalls half heartedly, hand tucked into the back of his coat. He squeezed his eyes like he was in pain before opening them to see Max, bloodied and breathless before him.

His expression flew through emotions, before landing on defensive. “What are you doing here, Caulfield?”

She ran her wrist along her nose, glaring at him. “This is the girl's bathroom, Prescott. What are _you_ doing here?”

He choked on his air for a few seconds before cursing and turning around, heading out the door. She let him, then proceeded to wait, hoping Chloe would be open to listening, if only for a minute

The door slammed open again and Max jumped, double surprised to see Nathan back.

He couldn't make eye contact with her.

“Just- Come the fuck on, Caulfield. Nurse.” Nathan looked behind him before turning to glare at her shoes insistently. “Now.”

She thought back to his voicemail. Was he that Nathan yet?

In any case, she would serve a good distraction as any. “Okay. Lead the way.”

And as she passed through the door, the confines of the photo proved to be tight, and she rushed back through time and space.

 

She woke up with a migraine.

She didn't curse or groan. She squinted her eyes open and forced herself to sit up, disoriented and agonized as she might be.

"Jesus Christ," someone snapped, and hands were at her shoulders pushing her back onto her back. "Stay _down_ , Max."

Crunching gravel and an out-of-breath voice, "Nathan's on his way. Your boy better know how to break traffic laws without getting caught."

"Please, he wouldn't act untouchable if it wasn't fucking true. He's not stupid."

"Uh, your judgement is seriously impaired."

"I said he wasn't stupid, not that he isn't fucking psycho. He'll get what's coming."

A snort and more crunching, and a cold, cold hand on Max's throbbing, throbbing head. "You doin' alright, superstar?"

Max struggled to reach up and wrap her hand weakly around the wrist to that icy hand. "Ch..Chleo...."

" _Pfft_ ," and a more temperate hand brushing back Max's hair. "She's definitely concussed, Chleo."

"I d'n...."

"Yeah, no fucking shit. You ever hear of tact? If we act like this isn't that serious, she-"

"She'll have a laugh and walk around like she's functioning? Not how that works, Price."

Yes, yes, yes, oh, thank _god_ , thank time and space and also _fuck everything_ for making her go through all this horseshit in the first fucking place.

"Oh, fuck."

"See? Maybe she wouldn't be fucking _crying_ if-"

"Max, it really doesn't look that bad. I've gotten a concussion before and it's a pain, but it obviously wasn't fatal. You'll just need to-"

"You're so goddamn _fake_."

Max took in a shuddering breath, trying to work past the tear-jerking relief she felt that Chloe, Chloe, _Chloe_ , she's alive at the end of the week, and it doesn't sound like there's a hurricane and-

A rumbling engine and tires rolling, loud. A car door slammed open and steps paced forward in a rush. "Shit, you weren't kidding, V. Okay, there's room for someone in the front, and someone will have to sit in the back with Caulfield."

"Where's your dad?"

"No clue, so we better fuckin' hurry."

The cold, cold hand moved away and Max was helpless to keep it, uncomfortable as it was. Her own hand fell to the ground and the cold hands, probably the same hands, found themselves under her pits, lifting her up and making her head roll and ache, ache, ache.

"You get her feet."

"Me?"

"Yes, you, does it look like Mister Mummy can do it?"

" _Ugh._ "

Sturdy hands found her ankles, climbed up, hesitated, and found themselves at her lower back, arms squeezing Max's legs to her soft sides.

"Christ, is there fucking _blood_ on the ground?"

"You think your dad'll notice?"

"... He's enough of a bastard I could probably lie to his face about it and he wouldn't care."

"The apple and the tree, huh..."

"Oh, fuck off."

Shuffling and struggling and a stifled gasp.

"Fuck, her nose is bleeding."

Silence besides the door, the air, the animals, the car, the pushing, adjusting, and god no, there's no such thing as silence because noise is constant, and deafening, and _painful_.

An arm around her, and all she could do is hope it's Chloe's.

"You guys put everything back, right?"

"It doesn't matter too much, but we tried to."

"... Right. Right. _Fuck_."

The car started and began to move and there was no more talking.  
Max fell back into herself.

 

"You weren't supposed to let her fall asleep!"

"How was I supposed to know she fell asleep! She kept making faces and noises and reacted to me!"

"She literally _snored_."

"I thought it was a snort, because of the blood!"

Chloe. Victoria. Blood?

Blood.

She could smell it and taste it and she was positive that by now her lip had seen more blood than her veins ever would.

She groaned and squinted her eyes open, blurs taking colors of blue and yellow and red and black.

"Max? Max, you okay? What year is it? What's your last name? Who's the president?"

"I-"

"Nice overwhelming her, dumbass."

"No, it's," Max closed her eyes against and scooched up into a sitting position, hands helping and guiding and steadying. She rubbed her arm across her face and then her fingers against her eyes and then looked up, up, to a darkening sky. Calm. "I'm... okay."

Chloe grabbed Max's face with her cold, cold hands and gazed deep into her eyes, making her breath hiccup and her eyes water. Chloe smiled. "Your pupils are acting normal, at least. You really scared us, Max."

Max gasped out a humorless laugh, grabbed Chloe's face, and pushed herself up to kiss her, strongly and briefly. She fell back down to her ass and grinned wobbily. "You scared me, too, Chloe Price."

Chloe stared with wide eyes at Max, hands long since let go of her face, and then she grimaced and stood back, palm to her forehead. "You wrote the note."

Max blinked, slowly. "What?"

"The note. The _note_. The one where you told Max that she killed me and I was the love of her life, and all that. You wrote that, didn't you. You're Future Max." Chloe stared down at her, eyes full of... something. Sadness? Fear? Something.

Victoria stood up from behind Max, squeezing her shoulder briefly, and then dusted her ass off as she walked over to the car. Was that Nathan's car? Where was he, then?

She opened the back door, then sat on the seat, legs facing out of the door, looking over at them with a blank expression. "I'll just be here, then."

Chloe looked over at Victoria with an exaggerated grimace, then back down to Max. "Are you... Is this how it works? Do you get to reap the benefits of the changes you make to the past?"

Max nodded slowly. "I guess you could say that. I, um, I used the photo I took in the bathroom. I... You expected me to let Nathan shoot you, but instead I wrote that note to myself and distracted Nathan from meeting with you at all."

"The photo... You. Travel through photos? Max didn't tell me she could do that..." Chloe muttered, looking a bit miffed.

"She didn't know. _I_ didn't know, until later. I told myself to leave all that stuff alone."

Why did Chloe seem so upset? She looked over to Victoria again, and looked back to Max, her voice a bit frantic. "So, is Max, like, gone? Forever?"

" _I'm_ Max. I'm the core Max, and this is the core timeline. That's why I'm here, I'm the real one," Max insisted. She couldn't help but admit that it did seem unfair. She would probably have been fine with disintegrating with the fucked up timeline and leaving this changed Max to her new, happy life, if only she didn't need to cling to her memories. There wasn't anything she could do about it but go with the flow, though, and having Chloe miss a brief and alternate version of herself after everything Max had gone through for her _supremely stung._

Chloe's face broke and she looked over to Victoria _yet again_ , who still had that neutral expression. She must really have been at a loss if she was looking to _Victoria_ for guidance. "Okay. Okay, whatever. You're Max, just. With hella different memories and opinions and. That's fine. We can still get shit done and figure ourselves out afterwards. Can you walk?"

Max shrugged and held out a hand, which Chloe took and used to pull her up. Max landed very close to Chloe, and wanted nothing more than to hug her and know she was whole, but.

Chloe just pat her shoulder and strode over to the car, getting in to the driver's side and starting the engine.

Helplessly, Max looked to Victoria, then realized that the only reason Chloe probably kept looking to her was because she was the only other person here. And she was behaving perfectly neutral.

Strangely, Victoria broke her flat expression and smiled, shrugged, and jerked her chin as she scoot further into the back seat.

Max walked over to the car, noting how nice it looked, and looked between the passenger seat and the back seat, unsure where she should go. Her instinct was to stick as close to Chloe as possible, but there was an _insanely_ uncomfortable tension between them now, especially because Max had kissed her.

Max sighed and looked out around them, suprised to find that she didn't recognize the area. On one side, where they'd been sitting, was a park drenched in the dark of night, benches spotted with the light of dim lamps. On the other were a line of closed stores and cafes, cars parked with tickets on their windshields, and trees every few feet of sidewalk.

Max distractedly slipped into the backseat, since the door was already open, and she kept her gaze glued to the window, staring right past Victoria.

"Where are we?"

"A few hours out of Arcadia. Just some no-name town with a smaller residential area than my backyard."

Max looked to Victoria, then, and down to her knees. "So, y-you know about everything?"

She wasn't quite scared of Victoria, anymore. After getting to know her a little better in her own timelines, and the slight, sick feeling of solidarity when she woke up with Victoria next to her,  _there_.

This Victoria was still an unknown quantity, though. Max had told herself to play nice, but she wasn't sure what Max could have done to get Victoria to listen for even a full two minutes.

Victoria glanced at her, then Chloe through the rearview. Her gaze settled back towards the window. "Yeah. I know about everything."

"I'm kinda surprised, is all. I didn't even tell you the first time we became kinda friends. Only Chloe knew."

Victoria snorted. "Well, if your relationship with me, in your first timeline, remained anywhere near as untouched as it was in the month before all this, I'm not surprised. I'm _really_ good at being an unapproachable bitch. Emphasis on bitch." 

Max's hands tightened and her head sprung up, suddenly remembering a life she hoped wasn't lost by now. "Is Kate okay?"

"Max." She looked to Chloe who demonstratively pulled at the seatbelt across her collar.

Max blinked in confusion, then stiffened when Victoria unbuckled and reached over to pull her seatbelt over her chest. "Kate is fine. She left Blackwell."

"What?"

Victoria put her own seatbelt back on as Chloe began pulling out. "In an attempt to keep you from getting close to me, and by extension Nathan, she told you what happened to her. And then you told me. Which you _really_ shouldn't have, by the way. And I told you as much. But anyway, I got fucking pissed and went to confront Nathan because I'd kind of thought he'd hooked her up with drugs anyway, just not the psycho-perv ones. And not unconsensually. He freaked the fuck out and tried to intimidate me, said some nasty shit about Kate, so I fractured his wrist and told her to put a restraining order on him and get out of dodge. I warned her about Jefferson, and she said that if she needed to come back to testify, she would."

That... sounded plausible, but way too heroic on Victoria's part. "I thought you hated Kate."

"I did. I do," Victoria agreed, looking at Max like she didn't want her to be confused. "She's pretentious and has a superiority complex and thinks everything about me is a sin. Or at least supports the same people who think that. But that doesn't mean I wanted her to get drugged and- and-... God, I can't wait to make Nathan turn himself the fuck in so she can finally file that restraining order."

"But you posted that video, you harrassed her for weeks about it!" Why, why was she antagonizing her and stringing her up to dry? This definitely wasn't the time to redirecting accusation and hurt feelings, and Victoria  _definitely_ wasn't the target for it.

"I thought she was just letting loose. I wanted her to admit she was being a hypocrite when she went back to her fucking Picture Perfect routine." Victoria crossed her arms and looked back out the window. "I'm not saying what I did was okay. I'm just saying I'm not _that_ fucking awful. Even demons know."

"I can't believe I'm about to say this, since I spent so long praying that you'd turn on her once and for all," Chloe muttered. "Honestly, it's just pointless to rehash all this shit accusatorily like we did last time, so just go ahead and assume Victoria's crimes of bitchiness have been catalogued, rationalized, forgiven and/or atoned for. Being around... you... certainly did some improvements towards her attitude."

Victoria was directly turned away from Max. Max stared at the back of her head for a few seconds, then looked at Chloe, who was focused on the road.

Max looked away, out her own window.

"Where are we going?"

"Seattle," Chloe answered. "Maybe I'll see what was so great there that you forgot about me, huh?"

Ouch. Major ouch.

"Lay off, Price." Victoria took a deep breath and leaned her head back against the seat, closing her eyes. "We're going to my parent's house. You convinced them to showcase some of your work in one of their galleries, and we both managed to get some time off from classes, provided we strongly vouch for Blackwell during our time there."

"And I'm just tagging along with my best friend," Chloe added.

Max nodded slowly. "Is it dumb to ask why we're doing this?"

Victoria smiled, but her eyes remained closed. "Ordinarily, yes, it would be. I think you can be forgiven, though, given the circumstances."

"We're going to anonymously drop off our evidence at a Seattle police station, because the Prescotts don't control that. We're using this trip as our alibi if anyone tries to pin B&E on us, along with theft," Chloe explained, as though she were talking about plans for dinner. "Before you call me a genius, though I hella appreciate the compliment, the plan was a joint effort between Victoria, me, and her bestie, Sweet T."

"Sweet T? Taylor? Victoria's minion? She's  _in_ on this?"

Victoria laughed, as though surprised to hear the term. "Uh, yeah. My minion. She doesn't know everything, but she helped me convince everyone, including the police, that there was a serial killer passing through Arcadia. That's to keep our girls safe and locked in the dorms."

Max digested all of that before grinning wryly at Chloe. "I notice I didn't get any credit, there. You tellin' me I just sat on the sidelines and let you all sort _my mess_ out?"

"I mean, you kinda did, didn't you?" Chloe responded dryly, but smiled back. "Nah, but other you did dirty her hands. She, uh. She found Rachel."

Max's stomach dropped with Chloe's grin.

"But she also ran Frank out of town, which was pretty rad. Plus, it was her photography that got us our ticket to Seattle. Well, not literally, cause we're driving, but y'know."

Max smiled gently, content to leave that thread of conversation be. Then she remembered something from when she'd snooped through Victoria's room. "I'm sorry that we're doing it this way. I know your parents aren't as supportive of your career as they should be."

Not spoken was how much it must sting that they'd accepted the untrained Max Caulfield before they'd even considered accepting Victoria.

Victoria blinked twice then looked over at Max, brows slightly furrowed. "I thought you said you and your Victoria were only kinda friends."

Max's shoulders hitched up. Should she lie? "W-well. I mean, there were timelines when we were, like, really close and stuff. B-but..."

Victoria's look slowly turned into a glare, and she tilted her head waiting for a direct answer.

Max shrunk away from her glare, pulling her hood up around her face. "I... Do you remember when you got Zach to cheat on Juliet and told Juliet that he'd cheated on her with Dana?"

Victoria's glare melted into surprise, then into a sort of introspective blank stare. "That feels so long ago. But yeah."

"When I first started messing with my powers, I used them to spill paint on you because you wouldn't let me into the dorms. And you were being really, really mean," Max added under her breath. She shook her head. "Anyway, when I got up there, Juliet had locked Dana in her room and was trying to force a confession or something out of her, and Dana told me that she thought it was your fault this was happening. Taylor had left your room open when she went running for a change of clothes for you, so I... slipped in and started looking for evidence. I saw some stuff about your parents in there."

Max expected Victoria to lash out, to yell or use something against her in front of Chloe. At the very least ask exactly what Max had seen.

Instead she melted into her seat again, closing her eyes. "Fair enough. Don't worry about it, though. Me trying to get approval from them is more of a formality, really. It's less about the photography and more about the fact that I'm trans. The day they readily sponsor or showcase my work is the day they give in and respect me as a woman, and their daughter. They'll have to put my name on the labels, after all."

"O-oh..." Max pushed her hair behind her ear, glancing at Victoria curiously. She figured it was probably rude to comment anymore, right? It likely wouldn't be a compliment to tell her she, like, passed or whatever. Cataloguing that information away and responding with silence was probably the most polite course of action.

Chloe cleared her throat and said with a loud, exaggerated voice, " _Wow_ zer, Victoria! Really? But your _boobs_ look so _real_!"

Victoria chuckled and hid her mouth with her hand, unable to totally cover her wide smile.

Max paled. "Did. Did I say that?"

Chloe laughed, nodding. "You also said you could've sworn she PMS'd."

Max groaned and buried her face in her hands, beyond embarrassed of her alternate-self. "I am _so_ sorry, Victoria."

"Oh my god," Victoria said, laughing. "Don't even worry. You were totally high. Plus, I've said much, much worse to you."

"You guys had this weird inside joke-thing going where you'd try to seriously insult her and she'd score it. It was sweet, in a super weird way that really has me thinking she was training you to be her successor."

Victoria sighed forlornly. "Now I have to start _all_ over.

"Don't even _joke_ , Victoria. I will turn this car around," Chloe threatened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have a comic drawn for this chapter. its in my sketchbook, and its when max kisses chloe. it happens exactly as described, except because you can see it, you can see victoria sitting behind her, going from shocked, distraught, to 'well, okay then. feelings machine broke.' 
> 
> also drawing max kissing chloe w blood all over her face made it much easier for me to have chloe react how she did. don't look pleasant at all. 
> 
> also ill be honest i just got really fucking tired of looking at this chapter so if you could leave some comments whether u liked it or hated it, thatd be tasty!


	3. Seating Arrangements

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soooo writing on any kind of consistent schedule is gonna be IMPOSSIBLE im just not built like that and my life is just really hectic in nature. sorry bout that. but ill do my best to get this done, no matter how long it takes.

Max had a _lot_ of questions, and out of the two of them, Victoria somehow was the more likely to give her straight answers.

  
They hadn't really delved into what their relationships had become, but it was obvious to Max that a lot of things were different. When she'd told herself to make friends with Victoria, she'd meant for Other Max (because, yes, there had to be a difference) to become as close to friends as was _possible_. At least make Victoria like her enough to heed warnings. _Maybe_ get further into that false exterior than Max had managed to get, but only slightly!

  
She didn't actually think a universe existed where Max, as she was, geeky loser and all, could _actually_ become friends with Victoria. The universe where she was the Queen Bee didn't count, since that Max was so obviously not _anything_ like Max as she was now.

But. Victoria was pleasant.More than pleasant, she was downright  _concerned_. Friendly! Max knew she had it in her to not be a  _total_ rotten bitch, but she seemed like a completely different person. Cautious, still, where she was kind, but consistently pleasant without needing Max to initiate it.

And then there was Chloe, who kept making distinctions between 'Other Max' and Max, which would have been fine if it weren't for her clear and _pointed_ preference for Other Max. Her jabs were well-timed, unending, and there seemed to be no respite in sight. Chloe was very clearly uncomfortable with Max's very existence, which hurt less than it really should, but still hurt enough that she kind of had to pretend she was a robot to cope.

Of the questions she'd barraged, here were the answers:

Her phone was currently shattered in the glovebox, because Other Max decided that the only solution to being locked in a room was jumping out of a second-story window.

They'd be staying at Victoria's because Max had asked her parents to, the three of them wanting to stick close to each other while everything unfolded. Max had plans to meet up with them at the Gallery, but beyond that was winging it.

She apparently really didn't want to know how many close calls they'd come to, in terms of facing their own mortality, but she was assured that they hadn't used Max's powers a single time. To their knowledge.

The Everyday Heroes contest was Victoria's for the taking, thanks to Max deciding that the best of both worlds would be for both of them to get their chance to debut, and having Victoria out of town for the announcement kept her safe from the aftermath of winning. If the FBI didn't get there by then.

Nathan was set to turn himself in as soon as the investigation would start, so he could cut a deal for information. Victoria couldn't speak about him without a deep scowl, but she still seemed determined to help him.

Other Max had been slowly but steadily turning into a softcore druggie, giving in to impulses to share with Chloe and Victoria when they lit up. Chloe mentioned that Arcadia would have to find a new plug, since Frank had been the only guy they knew, and Other Max had... _convinced_ him to seek new residence. Max learned that that story went more like, Victoria paid off Chloe's debts, Frank mentioned something about Rachel, and to keep Chloe from doing something stupid, Other Max had decked Frank and threatened to report him. He'd let it slip that he was kind of bought out by people more powerful, and Max didn't hesitate to take Chloe's gun to make a point. 

Afterwards she'd apparently thrown up.

"It wasn't even you shooting a hole through his floor that got him, either. It was when you mentioned they'd killed Rachel that he really decided it was time to pack up and move out."

Which, really, was just fine.

Chloe pulled into a gas station, turning off the car and turning back towards the girls in the back seat. "You ladies want anything? I'm going to get some energy drinks so we can catch up to our schedule."

"A lighter, if you can. I left mine in Nathan's car," Victoria requested.

She seemed so... mild. That was something major about Victoria that made the hairs on Max's neck stand up. Even when Victoria had been nice before, her cadence didn't lose its performance-like energy. Everything she'd said sounded like it came from a script, but now she had the Victoria-equivalent of mushmouth. Maybe it was just Max, though, because if she was honest, she couldn't point out exactly what seemed off about her.

After Chloe left, jogging over to the store part of the station, Victoria unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door, heading out to start filling the tank.

Max suddenly felt claustrophobic. She looked around the unfamiliar car, looking for some kind of distraction. The pockets on the backs of the front seats looked empty, and with Victoria standing right outside, Max wasn't about to go snooping. She couldn't use her powers anymore, not unless she needed to start over again, which she wasn't actually sure she could even _do_.

All Max could do, on her own, was think. And she really, really didn't want to. Not yet.

A knock on the window had Max jumping, turning to look at Victoria who was looking at her blankly through the window.

"You should stretch your legs. I don't know when the next stop will be."

Max took a moment to digest the suggestion before following, unbuckling herself and stepping out of the car. She inconspicuously stretched, rolling on the balls of her feet while she let her blood rush through her. She leaned back against the car, looking towards the road and the horizon, faintly wishing she had her camera. Road trip albums always have such a neat quality to them.

"I'm going to sit in the front with Chloe. You can lay down in the back, if you want, with your feet to the right."

Max nodded absently, not turning to Victoria. As much as she hadn't wanted to think, she felt like she was losing herself to some kind of automated function she'd only just discovered in her own psyche.

 

Victoria stared at the back of Max's head, hoping she couldn't feel her gaze.

She didn't know why she was able to accept Max's situation so easily. The fact was she probably hadn't. Victoria kept waiting for Max to be flooded with memories from this timeline, to suddenly catch up and understand all the subtleties in their new relationships.

It seemed so cruel and so unfair that after everything they'd gone through, Max had been replaced. She didn't even get absorbed. Sci-fi rules told her that timelines, when they were fucked with, were real and physical. That when someone from another timeline came in, they weren't _allowed_ to take over, for fear of destroying reality as they knew it. But that usually involved two different versions of the same physical body, and Max was just _one_ girl. This was just one timeline. Folding over itself.

So Max had been completely replaced. Replaced by someone who had no idea what was going on in their world, had no idea who her own friends were, because the experiences she'd made them go through had changed them so completely.

Victoria's stomach twisted at the desperate kiss Max had launched towards Chloe, the relieved tears that had poured out of her.

There was no denying how much Max loved Chloe, even Their Max held her to such a regard that she'd broken down crying in Victoria's arms, stressing over whether Chloe hated her.

Victoria could only be grateful that this Max, Alpha Max and Stranger Max, didn't seem to hate her. She didn't trust her, didn't understand her, not like Beta Max, but she didn't hate her. That was enough, she told herself.

The truth was, not much had been lost. They'd gotten close, Victoria's feelings had started acting up, and now she was gone. Hopefully Victoria's heart would stop associating this stranger with the palpitations she'd gotten accustomed to, but either way, she could deal. She'd bottled up worse.

The worst part was really Chloe. Chloe saw this elusive 'Future Max' as some kind of malicious deity, who was trying to manipulate her feelings and indebt her to Beta Max. It had taken a lot of strained communication to get Chloe to believe that the threat was real, especially because they couldn't really prove the time powers.

Max had nearly talked herself into keeping Chloe entirely out of it, until Victoria reminded her that without Max's interference, Nathan would have shot and killed her. If nothing else, Future Max had made it clear that Chloe needed the protection.

The reset on _their_ friendship put more of a strain on Victoria's neck than her own pesky, unrequited crush. It was no doubt weighing on Max that Chloe seemed to resent her very existence, and Chloe would probably just exacerbate the situation until Max was back to cowering from Chloe's moodiness.

Sure, they'd fixed it before, and Chloe and Max had agreed wholeheartedly to work on rebuilding their friendship, but Chloe had piled all of her issues with Max on Future Max, and nobody thought that they'd ever have to deal with that.

Victoria didn't like Chloe, especially didn't like her association with Rachel, and deeply resented her unwillingness to cooperate when Beta Max was waving her white flag. But she didn't hate Chloe, didn't hate Rachel, and understood that she was acting with hurt. If Victoria didn't have the friendship she'd had with Beta Max, and the instincts she'd developed for it, she probably would behave the same way. She especially would if she'd developed the same automatic distrust of 'Future Max.' Being reached out to because some elusive figure  _told_ Max to didn't exactly feel great, but Victoria didn't have the same history as Chloe and Max did.

It killed Victoria to have to do it, but she'd resigned herself to the emotionally mature role, securing herself as the go-to authority figure in their strange little group, and fair referee. That meant ignoring her bruised ego, ignoring how Max's obvious love for Chloe, _romantic_ love, made her feel, and ignoring the short, barely forming history and rapport she'd shared with her Max.

Easier said than done.

Victoria pulled the nozzle out of the tank, holstering it and closing the cap. She finished the transaction and moseyed over to the passenger side, pausing next to Max with her hand on the door.

Max was staring out, out, and nowhere, frown deep and arms crossed.

Victoria thought for a moment, and smiled to herself albeit a tad bitterly. She reached over and flicked Max's head. "Hel _lo_? Earth to Caulfield. I know you're way behind and all, cool way after it was cool, but it's probably best if you read along with the class."

Max had flinched away at the contact, rubbing her head and looking at Victoria, bewildered and put off. "What?"

"Stay on the same page, was the convoluted metaphor," Victoria explained. "I know you're processing a lot right now, and I'm so for you sorting yourself out, but you look like you're on the verge of a breakdown, and _none_ of us can deal with that right now."

"I'm not..." Max shook her head, turning back out towards the horizon and looking thirty shades more annoyed than lost. "I'm fine. Sorry it's taking me a bit to catch up. I only completely rewrote _history_."

"And it worked, didn't it? The love of your, and let's both agree about this, _extremely_ pathetic life, is alive and well and extremely capable of taking care of herself. That's what you wanted, right?"

Max scowled, refusing to look at her. "Just leave me alone, Victoria. You have _no fucking clue_ what I'm going through right now."

"No, I don't," Victoria agreed dryly, crossing her arms in automatic defensive gesture. "And I'm not asking you not to go through it. All I'm asking is that you wait until we've gotten to my house. You can lock yourself up in a guestroom and wreck it, do whatever you need to to start functioning like a normal human being, or the closest thing to it that someone like you can manage. We're running on _fumes_ right now, and frankly? Neither of us know you. We literally can't care about you. You're just some girl who replaced our..."

Victoria paused, unsure if that phrasing was going to be effective. In the end, she decided to go with it. "You replaced our Max. It's gonna sting."

Max's melancholic stare had long turned into a vicious glare, aimed down at the ground in front of her own feet. She didn't seem lost anymore, directing her scattered energies into a steady anger, and Victoria smiled slightly again. It was better to be present and bitter than to be lost, floating along without a clue of what you wanted or needed.

Victoria pushed off of the car, nearly skipping over to the driver's side as though she didn't care at all about the conversation they'd just had. She slid into the car, turning the key still in the ignition, and turned on the radio. She wanted to close her eyes, sit in her thoughts for a second, but instead she tapped her fingers along to the song and watched Max through the car's mirrors to the best of her ability.

She watched Max push away from the side of the car. She bunched herself up, hands coming up to grab at her hair, and she titled her head up. Victoria could only imagine her expression, but that was the body language of an angry, angry girl who wanted nothing more than to scream.

Max dropped her arms, and opened the door again, sliding in, and slamming the door shut.

Victoria ignored her, looking out to the store, then down at her nails, which were wrecked, chipped beyond saving, and accompanied with tiny scratches and callouses along her fingers. Her mouth tightened. Her mother would likely have something to say about the state of her.

"Victoria?"

Victoria looked up at the rearview mirror, watching Max watch her physical body instead of her reflection. "Hm?"

"Does..." Max looked down, struggling with her words. "I don't know. Do you think... I have a chance? With Chloe?"

Victoria struggled to keep from looking surprised, and knew she beefed it. "Uh. Probably. She's a bastard, but you managed it before, haven't you? Granted, you're working against some obstacles but... If it's meant to be, right?"

Victoria wasn't sure if she said the right thing. She wasn't totally sure what she'd said. What was she _supposed_ to say?

Max nodded, expression suddenly resolute. "You're right. Thanks."

"No problem. Don't overthink it, Maxine. Despite how dim you seem in _class,_ it's apparently a really bad habit of yours."

Max's brow furrowed, and she opened her mouth to correct her.

Victoria held up a hand, and turned to look at her over the back of her seat. "I know what I said."

The passenger door opened, and the both of them jumped, Victoria leaning back towards her window and Max pressing herself against the backseat. Chloe slid in, tossing something back at Max, and dropping a plastic bag down in between the driver's and passenger's seats, shutting her door strongly and buckling her seatbelt right away. "Eat that. Better and badder you hasn't eaten in awhile, and well. Okay, fuck, listen..."

Max tuned in immediately to Chloe's exaggerated serious tone, while Victoria rolled her eyes and started the engine, pulling out and back onto their path, grateful that Chloe didn't question why she'd taken over driving.

"It's a Snickers, right? And I thought, 'hey, maybe Max is just hungry.' Y'know. Cause you're not you when you're hungry?" Chloe split a grin at Victoria, who was staring at the road pointedly.

"Good one, Chloe," Max said dryly, holding the bar to her lap tighter than it needed to be held.

Chloe glanced at her, winked, then looked back to Victoria, stage whispering when she said,

"Wanna bet if she goes back to normal after eating it?"

 

Chloe wasn't that invested in the joke. It was fucking hilarious, and Chloe really should get paid for the steady entertainment she provided to her poor-taste friends (Victoria laughed at mean things and Max's jokes were always so _cheesy_ ). Chloe's jokes were topical, they were _tailored_ , and these two cornballs were cowards for denying her humor's quality.

And it gave her a chance to revise her behavior. Nothing like a joke to release unintended tension, if done right.

She could practically feel the tugging Victoria was doing to their group, trying to keep them amiable enough to make it through this goddamn road trip. Admittedly, Chloe was probably pinning some things on Future Max that were... very wrong, apparently. This Max seemed no more devious or diabolical than Their Max, who was plenty devious when it came to things like... minor vandalism on school property. Or concealing public intoxication.

She was the kickboard of their quest and their party, but she had no kind of wit for on-the-fly strategizing or longterm planning. She had good defensive instincts, swayed Chloe with how many times she'd endangered herself to save her, and she definitely had some steel ovies, but... She wasn't a mastermind. And neither was this Max. She was some dumb teen who got some dumb powers that fuck everything up when she uses them, and she got tossed into a dumb, awful crime scene that she alone had the knowledge and angle to solve and expose.

As much trouble as Chloe had given Their Max, once she'd bought into it, she was easily able to grasp the weight of Max's situation, and though she neither had any talent for strategy, knew that she couldn't let Max deal with it alone. They'd been best friends at one point, and if Max could be trusted, and obviously she could, she really wanted to rebuild that and felt awful for letting it fall apart.

Chloe had run out of will to resent her, threw it all on Future Max, who left all the grunt work to them and _suspiciously_  (in Chloe's opinion) told them that her magic time powers ruined the world- which, Chloe wasn't religious by a long shot, but getting those powers _just to not use them_ , made no sense. Not to mention the whole 'love of our life' thing.

Of course, lots of things happened that she couldn't explain or rationalize. Her dad died. Her best friend ditched her. Her girlfriend was killed. Her schoolyard bully was now her best friend, what with the displacement of her last one.

That fact was a bit hard to swallow. Weird, actually. Not hard.

So she rolled with it instead of reprimanding the idea, only allowing her a millisecond to reflect that a week ago she'd rather have killed herself than go on a road trip with Victoria of all people.

Which was why she was snickering at Victoria's exasperated expression, secretly grateful that she'd taken the reigns on catching New Max up on what this hellish week had wrought.

Damn.

Chloe sobered, sitting back. "Maybe you have more of a chance than I thought, Max. Our Max buried our tension in less than a week. Feels longer when there's murderers running around."

Chloe felt Victoria straighten up, and glance over at her. Or rather, saw it, out of the corner of her eye.

Was that a promise that Chloe would put her resentment aside? She wasn't sure. Looking at the numbers, there was only a week's difference of memories difference between the two Maxes. Maybe she'd get over it. Maybe they'd grow over it.

Chloe shook her head, and turned in her chair grinning back at Max, who was looking at her with a bedraggled kind of hope. "I just realized, like. We had so many questions about you. And now here you are! Like, we're in a car with a time traveler, and our first instinct wasn't to ask about the future?"

"She's not from the future anymore, dumbass. We caught up to her," Victoria pointed out.

"O- _kaaay_ ," Chloe drew out, then grinned at Max again. "Tell us about your timeline, though. Like, in detail. What actually _was_ the future?"

 

Max grimaced, and bit her lip pensively. "Uh. Well. It didn't end well."

Chloe couldn't help but laugh at that, and even Victoria let out an amused breath.

" _Obviously_ , Max. Christ."

Chloe wheezed, shaking her head. "Okay, okay, hah, how'd I die. You mentioned that I was- _am_ , whatever," she said before Victoria could comment smartly,"- an idiot. I gotta assume there's some pretty funny stories about that. Got a Dumb Ways To Die compilation to relay?"

Max cringed, immediately thinking of when Mark had killed her. "I mean, I didn't really think they were funny at the time, y'know?"

"Oh, come on. I'm here, I'm queer, and I'm converting oxygen to weed breath. I'm also super curious."

"I can't promise I won't laugh," Victoria warned. "If you're doing things like jumping out of windows, and calling _Chloe_ an idiot for recklessness, I can only imagine the kind of things she brought down on herself."

Max sighed. "Okay, um. First thing coming to mind is the train."

Chloe whooped, hands going up to slam the roof of the car, prompting Victoria to smack Chloe's leg, who ignored it. "I always wanted to die by train! Are you kidding, dude, that's like- That's a cartoon _classic!_ "

Max giggled, remembering how Chloe and her had laughed hysterically afterwards, holding each other desperately. A freaking _shoe_ had nearly killed her. "Yeah, I guess it is pretty funny. Retrospect is funny-funny."

"Bad one," Victoria judged.

"C'mon, gimme another!"

"You, uh... Killed yourself at the junkyard. We were practicing with a gun, and there were some... really unfortunate bad shots."

"Holy shit," Victoria said, mouth split into a grin. "That's. _Fucking_. Hilarious. Was it some TV-like pinball machine shit?"

Max laughed, no need to answer when Chloe piped up, immediately negating the idea before it could be confirmed. "Obviously it was more of a Rube Goldberg. Bullet breaks something, that thing drops something, destabilizes a bigger thing, and _SPLAT!_ Am I right or am I right, Max?"

Max quieted her laughs just enough to answer, "Something like that, Chloe. Something like that."

They settled into their seats, and they laughed about deaths that happened, unhappened, and never had the chance to happen. As one does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyway i dont get email notifications for comments and after like, the first two, i kinda didnt check in on my inbox, and then i saw MORE COMMENTS all of a sudden last night and i thought id try and see if i could get this chap out. i dont really have the energy to respond to those comments but i love you guys......youre super encouraging and i really appreciate it!!! also it seems like we're goin' for poly which is GOOD cause i kinda cant ever help but have chloe be a huge softy for max who melts all the time cause of her. we'll get there yet again.
> 
> i dont know how i feel about this chapter, honestly. it was reeeaaally hard to write, because i was mostly trying to summarize where they all were, mentally, and also have them piece together TO THEMSELVES how they felt and what they were thinking. it feels very introspective because of that, and im not sure if it worked out. it also feels a bit repetitive to me, but also i kept rereading the chapter, so. w/e
> 
> as always feedback is appreciated!! ill try to get the next one banged out quick but theres a few major events real close thatll probably mean the gap to the next one will be just as far, but oh well. maybe the wait sweetens the return? haha


	4. Candids

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> huhhhhhh??? i restarted this chapter a lot and im only now even a little happy with it. i came up with some more plot points i want to reach and a bit more of a concrete idea of where i'm going, so. this should be fun

The trip after that wasn't so daunting. They kept on moving, kept on keeping on. Max pushed her fears and anxieties down into a tiny concentrated ball of steeled stress that made itself a home in the pit of her stomach, mindful of Victoria's comment about running on fumes, evidenced by their time together in the car afterwards.

Chloe eased up considerably, laughing maybe a bit too forcefully and pushing Victoria to participate even when it seemed like she was on the brink of sleep in the passenger seat.

It made Max feel weird, but in a sort of good way. She felt like she was standing on the outside of the frame of a picture, looking in and interacting by empathizing, but not physically a part of anything taking place within the picture. Chloe and Victoria spoke easily to each other, with some barbs and the like, but still... friendly.

Max could have never imagined that on her own.

When the incoming Seattle sign passed them up, Victoria insisted on taking over, her eyelids uneven but her voice demanding. Despite their concerns, shared through the wrinkles on Max's forehead and Chloe's overuse of the compound word "dumb-tired", Victoria's hands stayed firm on the wheel and her eyes focused on the road. Chloe, despite herself, managed to pass out for a bit, even with her head vibrating against the passenger window.

Though content to sit and stare (at Chloe, but not at Chloe), Max managed to make herself doze, eyes shut and head (throbbing, but whatever) hung down, chin to her chest.

At some point Max didn't quite notice but didn't quite miss, they pulled into a parking garage and Victoria found a spot close to the entrance, bringing their long, long car ride to an end.

Max rolled her head, unbuckling her belt, and looked over at Chloe, who was still turned away from her and still very much asleep. Max leaned to look at Victoria, who was bent forward, hands on the wheel and forehead pressed against them.

Suddenly, before Max could say anything, Victoria sat up, hand striking out to turn and snatch the key out of the ignition.

Chloe, gasped, sitting up, then hissed, stretching her neck and rolling her shoulders. "Fuck, I hate sleeping like that."

"We're here," Victoria announced curtly, snapping her belt free and slamming the door open and closed, exiting quickly.

Max spared herself a moment for shock, and turned to Chloe who was following Victoria through the windows with her eyes, looking a bit surprised herself. Chloe took a deep breath and looked at Max, smiling a bit in reassurance. "Guess that wasn't too weird to you, huh."

Max blinked. "Uh. I mean. I guess not. She's been really, um..."

"Decent?"

Max breathed a laugh. "Yeah, I guess."

Chloe nodded, unbuckling her belt. "Well, I know her well enough now to know she's hella stressed, not just default-bitchy. So, uh, maybe don't make eye contact with her, for your own safety."

"Ah, I wasn't really planning on it anyway," Max half-joked.

The two of them climbed out, and Max was half-surprised to see Victoria hanging around the trunk, lips pursed and arms crossed, obviously waiting for them to get out. Though Max expected some kind of reprimand, Victoria said nothing, only clicking something on her keychain that made the locks click and the lights flash on the car.

And then she started off on a power walk towards the main building.

Chloe was probably more uncomfortable with the situation than Max was, she realized slowly, especially when they did make it into the main building and saw how high-quality the lobby was. Chloe's pace seemed to slow even as she gravitated to Max, seemingly out of instinct, which made Max smile to herself. In order to keep up with Victoria's strides to the elevators, though, Max had to grab her by the elbow and half-jog along with her, which wasn't the kind of touch Max wanted to respond to her discomfort with.

Once they all made it in to the elevator, Chloe pulled away from Max, though she smiled at her, probably feeling a bit grateful for the out-of-place solidarity.

They did not belong here, in their ripped jeans and clearance-bought jackets.

This was going to be a _horrible_ first impression.

Victoria pulled away from the panel with the buttons and stuff, shoving her wallet into her back pocket. It was then that Max noticed how rugged Victoria's own appearance was, in comparison to how she normally looked.

Her shoes, previously shiny, were scuffed beyond repair, her jeans were caked in dirt and her right leg was particularly dirty, and her shirt had a visible hole in the back. Plus, now lit by the hotel-like light fixtures, her makeup was a travesty, eyeliner smeared to a sort-of punk look, and skin flaws and blemishes laid bare.

Such features would go without notice on Chloe or Max, but on Victoria?

Victoria seemed to follow Max's train of thought as she caught her smudged reflection in the elevator doors, and looked down at herself. She backed away, coming to lean against the wall, arms coming up to cross her middle.

"God, I hope they aren't home," she murmured, sounding a bit...  
Max grimaced at her own thought.

Pathetic.

Chloe started to move, which made Max look up at her, and she wondered at the conflicted expression on Chloe's tired face.

Wow, Chloe looked tired.

"Hey, Vic," she started, cringing a bit and recovering by leaning against the wall she was closest to, hands coming up to support her on the handrail. "We could... still reroute to Max's place, right? If we don't wanna do this. I mean, they already like me, anyway, and you aren't _that_ much worse."

Victoria scoffed, but seemed to consider it. She shook her head. "We've got a paper trail saying we're going to be here. It's probably best that we seem as honest as possible, if anything happens."

 _If anything happens..._ Max's brows furrowed in confusion, and she looked over to Chloe, who was looking at... Victoria's shoes? Or the floor. The floor seemed more likely.

"What if nothing happens?" Chloe asked quietly.

Victoria didn't say anything.

Max tilted her head, unsure what-

Oh. Jefferson. The evidence. The police.

"You mean... what if they don't do anything?"

Chloe nodded, looking like she resented herself for her doubt, but couldn't shake it.

Max took a deep breath. "They have to. There's no way they can... know what we know... and not do anything. I mean... there's a," Max's hands were suddenly gripping her own arms, hard,"-there's a _body_."

"And with Taylor's serial killer rumors gone viral, there's no way it _won't_ become a federal case," Victoria said quietly, but not without confidence. "If not a killer, they'll be looking for a rapist. There's too many girls to ignore."

Chloe nodded to herself, like she knew all along that there wasn't any reason to worry. "Right, yeah. Even with whatever stupid legal red tape or whatever, how the hell could we show them th-those pictures and _not_ have something come out of it? Who'd just turn a blind eye, because- because-"

Max let go of herself and reached up to grab Chloe's shoulder, firm and grounding. "You're right. There's no way they can ignore what's going on."

Chloe looked up at her, eyes watery but smile grateful, brows still pinched with the grief and anger she'd been holding back who knows how long.

Victoria made a weird sort of hiccup noise, and both their heads swiveled towards her in surprise, watching her in muted shock as she slid down the wall of the elevator, breath coming in hard and shaking her entire frame.

Max just stared, numb to Chloe pulling her shoulder away, going to crouch in front of Victoria. Something wrapped itself around Max's ankles, ribs, throat.

Chloe had no such issue. Her hands came to Victoria's knees, balancing her crouch. "Hey, hey, no... What's- I mean, God, are you-"

Max's arms came to wrap around herself again, and she felt her back thud against the wall Chloe had been leaning against.  
Chloe huffed in frustration, head bending down. " _Fuck_. This is so stupid. I know what's wrong. I _know_ you're not okay."

"No, no," Victoria moaned past her tears, hands coming away from her red face to wave Chloe off and push her hands off her knees. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm just fucking exhausted."

Chloe scoffed, let Victoria wobble and readjust herself until she was on her knees, trying to stand up, then pulled her forward by her waist to crush her into a hug. Victoria gasped, but submitted to it for a bit, sniffling into Chloe's shoulder and biting back another wave of tears. Max watched, fingers digging into her own flesh, wishing she could be a part of this picture, rather than being held back by the frames.

Or maybe Max was a camera.

Max tilted her head, noticed how Victoria's nails dug into Chloe's jacket, how her brows furrowed up instead of down, how Chloe's boots shook as she struggled to stay balanced, and how her head was tilted, so her face must also be buried in Victoria's shoulder.

The vices around her lessened, but she still felt out of place.

Victoria took a deep, shuddering breath, and opened her eyes, looking up and meeting Max's eyes, who looked away immediately, face heating with an emotion she didn't quite understand.

"Get off of me, you oaf. We're probably, like, three floors from the top."

Chloe huffed out a wet-sounding laugh, and Max looked back to see they'd let go of each other. Chloe easily rolled up, wiping at her face half-heartedly. She reached a hand out to Victoria, helped her to her feet, and surprisingly said nothing else.

Victoria didn't let go of Chloe's hand, even if she did shoot a furtive glance Max's way.

The elevator finally chimed and the doors slid open.

Victoria ducked her head, then brought her chin back up, and started to walk, towing Chloe behind her, who had half a mind to reach out back to Max with no other gesture or comment than a held out hand.

Max cursed to herself, lunging for Chloe's hand, and let herself join their train.

Their little uneven train stumbled... not very far. The door to the penthouse was just neatly framed by a short hall with some chairs to line it. Victoria made to unlock it with one hand, refusing to let go of Chloe to make it easier.

It was dark inside.

Victoria made as little noise as possible, toeing off her clicky shoes and hooking her index and middle fingers into the heels. Chloe and Max followed suit, shoes on but steps gentle as they tip-toed past the large open spaces they couldn't really label, over to some scary stairs with only one rail and no vertical panels, up and up past some doors, to one that looked like every other in the shadows.

"This is my room," Victoria whispered, finally letting go of Chloe to open the door and lead them inside. Chloe let go of Max to head in while she kept the door open, and Max lingered, even after Victoria closed the door behind them all.

Chloe wandered a bit, by the bookshelf, the dresser, the desk, and the other desk right next to it. Finally, she sighed loudly at the queen bed in the middle of the room, immediately falling into it perpendicularly.

Max choked, hand coming up to stifle her laugh, and she looked over at Victoria, expecting her to chew Chloe out.

Victoria did nothing of the sort, instead meandering over to fall against the bed herself, over the pillows, parallel to Chloe, head-to-legs. Max couldn't see their faces, but judging by their easy breathing, she assumed, with no small amount of surprise, that they'd already fallen asleep.

There was room for her to mirror Victoria on the other side of Chloe, so she moved to do so, peeling off her shoes and jacket, and climbing instead of collapsing, sliding up so she could curl her legs up a bit onto the mattress without kicking Chloe.

And they slept.

 

 

Max didn't wake up to anything in particular. Her eyes opened, and she didn't wince at the sunlight flooding the room. She registered Chloe laying next to her, breathing deep and easy, still fully dressed and laying on her stomach.

Max moved slowly, sitting up. She saw Victoria, laying on her side and staring at her phone, facing Chloe. Victoria blinked and looked up at her, shutting off her phone and slowly sitting up herself.

Her hair was wild.

And kind of cute.

Max smiled, hand coming up to cover it. "Good morning, Victoria," she whispered.

Victoria nodded, scratching the back of her head, lacking any concern for her appearance. "Are you hungry?"

Max thought about it. "Not really. I think I should be, though."

Victoria nodded again. Then she slid off the bed, stretching and stumbling towards her dresser. "I'm going to shower. Then you can. I'll make food."

Max started to agree, but she didn't. "Um, but? I don't have any clothes..."

Victoria hissed, head tilting back and fist thumping her forehead. "Fuck. Yes, you do. I forgot our bags. They're in the trunk of the car."

"Oh," Max's hands came to link to each other behind her back. "Well, I can-"

"Don't worry about it, I'll have someone bring them up," Victoria waved her off, using one hand to bring her phone back up and shoot out... a text? Then she went back to her dresser, pulling out a bra and-

Max averted her gaze, face warming. She looked over at Victoria's desk, the one in front of her bed. "Um."

The drawers slammed shut, and Max could hear Victoria moving to-

There was a room inside the room, Max startled, looking up as Victoria walked into it. Probably a bathroom, then.

The door didn't slam shut behind her, but it was loud enough that Max looked over at Chloe, expecting to see her slowly coming awake. But no, to Max's amusement, she didn't. Instead, she snorted and rolled over, arm coming to wrap around one of Victoria's pillows.

Max smiled, and wondered a bit distantly if Chloe had grabbed onto either of them in the midst of their sleep.

She shook her head, turning on her heel to look around the room. It probably wouldn't be appropriate to snoop, especially without her powers, but Max was curious. This was Victoria's honest-to-god _home_.

And looking around, Max wouldn't have guessed as much.

Well, maybe she would, actually, had it been a week prior and she had yet to start fucking around with the very fabric of time and space. But now?

There was a bunch of equipment, dated and nowhere near the quality that Victoria used at Blackwell, and a computer and books and some framed pictures of very posed events in Victoria's life. But this was supposed to be Victoria's room, in Victoria's _home_ , and there was none of the character- albeit a bit forced- that Victoria's room had back in the dorms. No posters, no candids, and especially none of the nerd-stuff Max knew Victoria collected in private.

Max looked at a picture on Victoria's desk, of a little kid struggling to hold a baby on a pier. Max was glad that Victoria had come out to her, if only so she could properly bite her tongue before asking if that happened to be Victoria's brother, or something. The kid didn't look anything like Victoria did now, but that could just mean that Victoria was where she wanted to be, physically, and that whatever work she'd put into that had paid off.

On second thought, maybe she'd ask anyway. The best possible outcome would be Victoria getting an ego-boost, and Max got the feeling that she'd be needing it, if anything she'd said about her parents held any water. Not that Max really doubted her.

Max pulled out the chair from the desk, just enough, and slid into it, folding her arms on top of it. It sucked not having time wrapped around her fingers, even if it never really was. She really wanted to snoop, and she'd gotten fairly used to it, but she didn't want to get caught. And, considering how many personal affects she'd brought to her own dorm room, it was entirely possible that there wasn't even anything to find.

Max thought about her bedroom, how bare it seemed when she had everything packed and ready to go, and how weird she felt, leaving home to go home. She'd adapted easily to the Seattle crowd, and didn't spare as much thought to Arcadia Bay as she should have, expecting that she'd probably never go back, but as soon as she was presented the opportunity, she leapt on it. Mark Jefferson was amazing, or she really thought he was, before he turned out to be a disgusting piece of over-evolved shit, but he wasn't the only reason she was so ready to move back, especially on Blackwell's dime.

Victoria didn't have the same connection to the Bay, but she didn't really seem to have a connection here, either. It made Max wonder if Victoria felt like Blackwell was her home, or if she was still sort of looking for one.

The water she'd never really noticed start to run turned off, and Max looked over to the door Victoria had disappeared behind. For some reason, sitting at Victoria's desk felt wrong all of a sudden, and she stood up, quietly pushing the chair back to where it was, shoving her hands into her pockets and meandering away from the desk entirely, over to the other side of the bed, looking out the window that lit the other desk.

The door opened and Max pivoted on her heel, only to gasp and pivot back around again when she caught sight of shirtless, damp, flushed Victoria, with a towel around her neck.

She wasn't _naked_ , but holy _shit_. _Ho-_ ly shit. Holy shit.

"Oh, get over it, you could cope with the showers at school, couldn't you?"

She didn't, actually, really. Victoria probably didn't realize that, since Max had done pretty much all she could to avoid her, but no, Max did not cope with the showers at school, and she did not cope with the girls who had no qualms with walking from the bathroom to their room in a towel. It was something of a thing, she'd noticed pretty early on in middle school, that girls never seemed to have the same boundaries around each other that they would with... anyone else. Chloe often hung out shirtless when they were younger, to Max's adamant reassurance that, _yeah, it's totally whatever, sure! Who cares, we're both girls!_ And the girls in her high school often changed and hung out in the bathrooms in their underwear... for whatever reason. Max refused to be a creep, refused to be a prude, and refused to analyze exactly why being thrust into those situations made her feel kinda warm and a little giddy and a lot of both, actually.

It honestly took Max way too fucking long to realize how very much interested in girls she was, and revisiting her memories always made her want to slam her palm to her forehead repeatedly.

"Whatever," Victoria breathed with what sounded like an exasperated smile, "I'm gonna go get our bags. Leave the bathroom unlocked and I'll slip your bag in so you can get dressed in there, Max."

And Victoria sauntered out of the room in her underwear, apparently.

Max sighed loudly and dropped her face into her hands, trying to cool her cheeks.

"Hot damn."

Max spun around and looked to Chloe whose head was uncomfortably bent backwards to stare at the door Victoria had just walked out of. Chloe took a deep breath, let out a pretty dreamy sigh, and sat up, looking a bit shell shocked, but smiling just enough to show that she was just in a bit of a gay daze.

She met Max's eyes and her smile widened to a grin, like she knew Max's heart was racing and face was flushed because of Victoria's... Well, because of Victoria. "What a sight to wake up to, right?"

Max snorted and laughed, shaking her head and biting her lip and jogging over to the bathroom to escape Chloe's teasing before it could start in earnest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the camera thing was weird, right? like an afterthought? no actually i was gonna go a lot more places with that but then it ended up being a throwaway but HONESTLY thats a big mood. i come up with metaphors to cope with my day-to-day and toss them out pretty much instantly so whatever!!!!! its not bad writing is REALISM.


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